Outside Acoustics Problem?
Dutch_Apples
Posts: 5
Slightly off topic, but it is General Discussion.
I live in a very small town (roughly 3,000 people) and during the summer, the town really only has 1 bar, which is an outdoors tiki bar that holds maybe 200 people max.
The tiki bar is water side and about 2 blocks down the road are some very large condos that are elevated (first floor is parking garage which is mostly made of concrete.
Recently, there has been an uproar in the community involving the sound level coming from the Tiki Bar. (The stage faces the condos) A lot of townspeople are complaining that \"it's shaking the condos\" and is extremely loud.
I visited this Tiki bar on a number of occasions and it really wasn't that loud at the bar, however when I walked down the street to the condos, you could hear the sound with a 2 second delay Reverbing like crazy.
According to the newspaper, the police department was given a decibel meter, but no one knew how to use it (gotta love small towns) The Tiki bar is now for sale and will probably sell by next summer, but the controversy now is affecting the liqour license. Needless to say, this has had an economic & entertainment effect on the town.
My question is, does it sound like the \"officials\" know what they are talking about? I'm an entry level sound engineer, and to me it's more of an acoustical problem than a volume problem.
Any professional thoughts on this? I want to write a letter to the council and paper over this.
I live in a very small town (roughly 3,000 people) and during the summer, the town really only has 1 bar, which is an outdoors tiki bar that holds maybe 200 people max.
The tiki bar is water side and about 2 blocks down the road are some very large condos that are elevated (first floor is parking garage which is mostly made of concrete.
Recently, there has been an uproar in the community involving the sound level coming from the Tiki Bar. (The stage faces the condos) A lot of townspeople are complaining that \"it's shaking the condos\" and is extremely loud.
I visited this Tiki bar on a number of occasions and it really wasn't that loud at the bar, however when I walked down the street to the condos, you could hear the sound with a 2 second delay Reverbing like crazy.
According to the newspaper, the police department was given a decibel meter, but no one knew how to use it (gotta love small towns) The Tiki bar is now for sale and will probably sell by next summer, but the controversy now is affecting the liqour license. Needless to say, this has had an economic & entertainment effect on the town.
My question is, does it sound like the \"officials\" know what they are talking about? I'm an entry level sound engineer, and to me it's more of an acoustical problem than a volume problem.
Any professional thoughts on this? I want to write a letter to the council and paper over this.
0
Comments
May I make a suggestion...There is really only a couple of us here that help out, over at the Pro Sound Web however, there are a lot more. But if you could get together some type of drawing that illustrates the basic principles of what and where, then I think you could get a lot of ideas...
http://srforums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/f/2/0/
This is the address, and if you would like I am already an established member of the community, and could pose the question for you, or you could register yourself and do it. Rough dimensions (including the water and the distance to said condo's, type of music, typical PA used... hours of operation ...those sort of things.
Reverberant field over water is a tough one...usually the sound decreases by the square of the distance... but it seems that over water that isn't always the case...The more info the better here, these guys don't like to have to ask a whole bunch of question the information should have included in the first place.
Best regards
Gadget
Ever been at a lake (Gadget probably never has because Minnesota does have many lakes) at night and be able to hear a conversation across the lake a mile away?
DRA
Gadget
PM sent.
DRA